Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is a common but often unrecognized systemic disorder observed mainly in elderly people. All papers related to DISH demonstrate a consistent and marked increase of the disease with advancing age. Various local structural lesions such as oropharyngeal tumors, vascular pathologies, retropharyngeal abscesses, and anterior cervical osteophytes may lead to mechanical esophageal dysphagia.

A research article to be published on April 7, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. A research team led by Dr. Berrin Karadag reported a case of a geriatric patient with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.

This study concluded that DISH should be considered an important, although rare, cause of dysphagia among older adults. However, it should not be accepted as the cause of dysphagia until all other causes have been ruled out.

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

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